The writer makes a fair point: Big Tech censorship and social/political activism may be legal in some technical sense, but they remain incompatible with liberty.
Big Tech Now the ‘Fourth Branch of Government?’
Published
Tidewater News and Opinion Forum
A place for civil discussion of the events of the day for Tidewater residents without the limitations imposed by media forums.
Big Tech’s abuses cannot happen absent the umbrella provided by government.
If they were not protected by section 230 against liability, they are out of business.
So long as they are neutral platform providers, banning only obscenity and violence, section 230 is appropriate. but once they start filtering based on opinion or their own version of disputed facts, they are partisans and should be liable for their behavior like a newspaper or magazine.
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If social media providers are going to be responsible for content, half the posts from Trump and his enablers would never have seen the light of day.
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True, but so what?
If they filter and mold what appears on their platform for partisan purpose, they are not providing the neutral platform section 230 was created to protect.
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…”for partisan purpose”…
Interesting. So now it is a partisan purpose to try and prevent the fomentation of violence against OUR government?
Like I said, interesting.
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Well, then, fight for the repeal. Knowing full well that competition for social media and Google will shrivel. The cost of attorneys will outstrip the R&D and only the big boys can afford it.
56,000 tweets to 80 million accounts, bots or not, by the most powerful podium in the world cannot be just for rants, insults, threats, extortion, and racist lies if social media is to survive at all.
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Seems every failure by every actor can be traced to the government if you look at it long enough.
The idea that the social media companies are denying access to “conservatives” based on their philosophy or opinions is a hard one to prove because “conservatives” FREQUENTLY mix their opinions with a heady dose of made up bullshit and outright LIES – or what they lovingly call “alternative facts.”
Here is something you seem not to know – when a fact and an “alternative fact” are mutually contradictory they cannot both be true and cannot be considered equal valid. In those situations there is no recourse but to look to the evidence found in the real world.
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That’s a lot of words to say that only those who agree with you should be heard.
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No, what I am actually saying is that demonstrably false statements of fact can and should be purged from privately owned and for-profit social media platforms. Simple really.
I know that might make it harder for you to get the “information” you need to support your opinions but I am sure that where there is a demand the market will find a way. Parler, for example, will probably find a deep pockets right wing billionaire to fund the infrastructure that Amazon and Apple do not want tainting their brands.
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RE: “Big Tech’s abuses cannot happen absent the umbrella provided by government.”
True. I see that as part of a larger problem, which is too many people don’t want liberty anymore.
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Not if it comes with responsibility.
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Responsibility is good. How about accountability?
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“How about accountability?”
In the Libertarian world, the market will take care of any accountability. Or that is what I keep getting told by a certain Libertarian
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Approximately backwards. The egregious error of the big social media companies has been their shamefully dilatory response to the use of their platforms by the purveyors of falsehoods, conspiracy theorists and even hostile foreign agents to pollute civic discourse. They are trying now, but so far, too little, too late.
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Yesterday Europe’s top digital enforcer expressed surprise that it took so long to ban trump based on the constant lies and gaslighting.
I had to laugh at “disgusted facts”….
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“Disputed facts”, laughing so hard I couldn’t type…
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OK, folks, this article has all the sincerity of the sudden desire by the GOP to “heal the division”.
Kumba-friggin’-ya.
“It was all in good fun, now let’s get you in a wheelchair and go have a beer.”
ALEC has been funded by and written legislation for corporations and their interests for decades. And now, suddenly, a “come to Jesus moment. This after a planned, violent attempt to overthrow the next administration through a mix of “legal wrangling” and brutal killings and maimings meant to intimidate reluctant Congressmen.
Big Tech, all the other “Bigs” (Pharma, Ag, Auto, Electric. Oil, Tobacco…) have had their way with Miss Liberty for a long time. All under the guise of free market capitalism’s protection against the evil left.
Sorry, but those are true crocodile tears from the GOP and its enablers.
And I apologize to the crocodiles of the world.
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Unity, like compromise, does not exist in today’s TOP.
A time to unify? Sure. What are you going to offer for the sake of unity, Mr. Jordan? (Was he wearing his MOF today?) How about you. Mr. Gaetz? (Was he wearing his gas mask today/ Along with his stylish clownshoes).
I actually heard Gaetz today during lunch. He continued to perpetrate the BIG LIE while stating other little lies all along the way. Yeah. Matt Gaetz is all about unity?
I miss the good old days when leaders could keep a reign on the idiocy of the members of their particular caucuses. Then the tea party, the freedom caucus and “the squad” changed all of that.
Thank you, Newt Gingrich. I am sure you are enjoying what you have wrought.
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The GOP version of unity is for the Democrats to pretend the last five years, the election lies and the attempted coup never happened. And even now while whining about “unity” people like Jim Jordan will not utter the simple sentence “Joe Biden won the election fairly.”
I heard a very good response from a Democratic Congressman to these calls for unity the other day. His answer was essentially . . . “Sure. Let’s unify around the idea that the perpetrators, enablers and encouragers of sedition need to be severely brought up short and feel the full force of the law over their actions.”
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